As your partner on your health & wellness journey, we want to provide you with the information and tools you need to be healthy, and that includes tobacco cessation. Choosing to quit using tobacco can be one of the most important decisions you make to improve your health and quality of life. It can be difficult, but the choice is yours to make. If you quit, health improvements start right away and continue to get better with time. If you've tried before, remember: every time you try to quit, you increase your chances of succeeding.

Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Mississippi members with the Be Tobacco-free benefit can get started right away by logging into myBlue and signing up for Be Tobacco-free on your member portal. You will also find more detail about the benefit and the support that is available to help you quit successfully.

Quiz: Why do I use tobacco?

Knowing why you use tobacco helps to identify factors that will help you quit successfully.

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Please check all that apply:

- I can't go through half a day without smoking.

- Sometimes I find myself smoking even though I do not remember lighting up.

- Smoking helps me clear my mind and think better.

- I feel a strong urge to smoke when I haven't smoked in a few hours.

- Smoking is one of the greatest pleasures in my life.

- I enjoy the steps in lighting a cigarette.

- I need a cigarette as soon as I wake in the morning.

- I enjoy a cigarette after my meal.

- I smoke when I am angry or depressed.

- If I don't smoke, I feel anxious.

- Smoking relaxes me.

- I feel more comfortable with a cigarette in my hand.

You may have a combination of two or more categories, but the symbol with the most checks is your main reason for continuing to smoke. To quit successfully, you should pay more attention to this factor.

- If you chose more statements with this symbol, then you are addicted to the nicotine in tobacco. Being hooked on nicotine is a form of drug addiction. Your body craves it and you experience withdrawal symptoms when you don't smoke. This is the main reason that smokers continue to smoke.

- If this symbol was marked repeatedly, then you smoke out of habit. You have formed links between your daily activities and smoking. You may smoke after a meal, on a coffee break while talking on the phone, or while driving. It also gives you something to do with your hands.

- If this symbol was marked more than the others, then you are psychologically dependent on cigarettes. You think smoking will help you feel better when you are nervous, depressed, or stressed. Cigarettes and tobacco products cannot help you feel better or put you at ease. You feel better because you have convinced yourself that cigarettes are your source of comfort.

Resources to help you quit

Here is a list of additional third party resources to help you be successful.

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In addition to benefiting your own health, being smoke-free helps those around you. Secondhand smoke is known to cause many health problems and make others worse. Whoever is near you when you're smoking, you're doing them a favor when you quit.

Tobacco-free Workplace

Learn more about becoming a tobacco-free workplace now!

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As a tobacco-free workplace ourselves, Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Mississippi can share our success and help your business become tobacco-free, too. Click here to learn more about becoming a tobacco-free workplace.